Analysis of The Crow Sat On The Willow
John Clare 1793 (Helpston) – 1864 (St Andrew's Hospital)
The crow sat on the willow tree
A-lifting up his wings,
And glossy was his coat to see,
And loud the ploughman sings,
'I love my love because I know
The milkmaid she loves me';
And hoarsely croaked the glossy crow
Upon the willow tree.
'I love my love' the ploughman sung,
And all the fields with music rung.
'I love my love, a bonny lass,
She keeps her pails so bright,
And blythe she trips the dewy grass
At morning and at night.
A cotton dress her morning gown,
Her face was rosy health:
She traced the pastures up and down
And nature was her wealth.'
He sung, and turned each furrow down,
His sweetheart's love in cotton gown.
'My love is young and handsome
As any in the town,
She's worth a ploughman's ransom
In the drab cotton gown.'
He sang and turned his furrow oer
And urged his team along,
While on the willow as before
The old crow croaked his song:
The ploughman sung his rustic lay
And sung of Phoebe all the day.
The crow he was in love no doubt
And [so were] many things:
The ploughman finished many a bout,
And lustily he sings,
'My love she is a milking maid
With red rosy cheek;
Of cotton drab her gown was made,
I loved her many a week.'
His milking maid the ploughman sung
Till all the fields around him rung.
Scheme | ABABCACADD EFEFGHGHGG IGIGAJXJKK LBLBMNMNDD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (35%) |
Metre | 0111011 010111 01011111 01011 11110111 01111 0110101 01011 1111011 01011101 11110101 110111 01110101 110011 01010101 011101 11010101 010101 11011101 1110101 1111010 110001 110110 001101 11011101 011101 1101101 011111 0111101 01110101 01110111 011101 01101001 0111 11110101 11101 11010111 1101001 1101011 11010111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,199 |
Words | 243 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 10, 10, 10, 10 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 238 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 60 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:12 min read
- 81 Views
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